'Listen, Eddie, listen,' says Stewart

Jaguar Racing, only one season old in Formula, is busy trying to reinvent itself, with some high-powered people on board. Problem is, with high-performance people, there's likely to be the odd conflict of opinion.

'Listen, Eddie, listen,' says Stewart

28 February 2001Bob Jennings

Jaguar Racing, only one season old in Formula, is busy trying to reinvent itself, with some high-powered people on board. Problem is, with high-performance people, there's likely to be the odd conflict of opinion.

Especially when one of the drivers is the notably outspoken Eddie Irvine (pictured).

The Jaguar Formula One team results from the Ford Motor Co.'s buyout of the team established by triple world champion Jackie Stewart and his son Paul.

But, suffering from a lack of direct control last year - and with results embarrassingly being signficantly worse than they were under the private Stewart regime - Ford has swung in some heavyweights in the form of Indy 500 winner, Champ Car team-owner Bobby Rahal as team boss, and another triple world F1 champion, former Ferrari adviser, Niki Lauda as overall head of Ford's motorsport.

Well before this year's Jaguar R2 Formula One car was due to turn a wheel in anger at Melbourne's Albert Park, Irvine indicated he wasn't afraid of upsetting the new regime by claiming bluntly after testing at Valencia that the car was too slow. He then gave the rest of the team a bit of a spray while he was at it.

Lauda has not been backward in suggesting that Irvine should get on with the job for which he is being paid handsomely.

Rahal has been a bit more diplomatic, but reckons that Irvine's "negative attitude" will not help to pull the team together at this crucial stage of its development.

Jackie Stewart, in Sydney fresh off an aircraft from the UK and appearing in Sydney on Tuesday at the launch of local identity David McKay's book (David McKay's Scuderia Veloce) - with whom he once shared a Ferrari 250LM to win the Surfers Paradise 12-hour race - was more than happy to keep out of the conflict.

"I will be interested to see how it works," Stewart said of the triangular relationship between Rahal, Lauda and Irvine. "But Niki is a serious guy and knows how to get things done.

"A driver of less achievement has to listen to people who have knowledge and experience, and Niki is a good example of that," Stewart said.

"A lot of people don't want to do that, but if I were him (Irvine) I would be listening," he said.

Jaguar has undergone many staff changes between seasons, and it will be largely a new squad arriving in Melbourne this week.

Rahal says he believes the key to a good team is its motivation, and Irvine's comments are not the right way to go about getting it.

"I think Eddie is trying to tweak us into getting the job done, but I believe the way to motivate is to be positive," Rahal told the British newspaper The Independent. "I mentioned to Eddie that I thought he needed to contribute his commitment more positively ..."

He added that when he arrived at the Jaguar Racing's base at Milton Keynes he found a team with poor morale, and Irvine's comments did nothing to change that.

In 1999 the Stewart team - in partnership at that stage - with Ford finished fourth in the Constructors' world championship with 36 points.

Last year, as Jaguar, it finished ninth with four championship points, only one spot on the table above Minardi.